A King and His Movie

"King and his movie" (= "La película del rey") is an Argentinian movie released in 1986, and directed by Carlos Sorín. This film is far from conventional, and even bizarre, but it has a strange appeal, and I think that those spectators constantly on the lookout for something different will like it.The plot is simple: a Buenos Aires movie director wants to make a movie based on the story of Orelie-Antoine de Tounens, a Frenchman that declared himself "King of Patagonia" in the late XIXth century. Unfortunately, he has almost no financial backing, something that is fairly evident at the very beginning of the filming process, and substantially more problematic as days go by. What can a director do when everything seems to conspire against his efforts to make a good movie? Go on, of course!Some critics say that the gradual decline into irreality shown in this movie is an allusion that the director made to the Argentinian dictatorship of the late 70's and early 80's. I really don't know if that is true (I haven't talked to Carlos Sorín about it!), but I think it makes sense to compare the decadence of democracy in our country at that time with the gradual deterioration of the process of filming a movie. As a metaphore, it is a good one, specially when the insanity of the whole situation is depicted so well.On the whole, I think that you might enjoy "King and his movie", if you have a liking for the unconventional and don't mind some surreal elements in the argument of a film. Provided that is the case, recommended!Belen Alcat

This film's storyline is pretty straightforward.Sometime during the 19th century, a foreign adventurer attempted to weld the various nomadic indian tribes of the Pampas into a united kingdom, with him as King. I'm not familiar with the details, but the whole affair seems to have devolved into a sorry mix of misguided idealism and rapacious self-interest. And that's about all the history you really need to know to enjoy this film.Cut to the present. A young film director is preparing to shoot an expensive, ambitious feature film about this obscure incident when he is told that the producer has skipped town. There is no money to pay the cast, the extras or the crew.Undaunted, the director decides to go out on the streets, find himself an amateur cast and shoot the film regardless. He assembles a rather ragged, ill-assorted group of people, most of them with no acting experience whatsoever and sets off for the windswept desolation of Patagonia, coaching them along the way.The cast is reduced to living in tents, amid the stony deserts and howling winds of Patagonia and the line between the real-life actors, the historical incidents depicted and the film within the film become blurred. One by one the actors either desert or are forced to leave the set, leaving the director practically alone to complete his project.Which is not to say that this is a depressing or "heavy" movie. The ingenuity displayed by the director and his crew in making a big-budget blockbuster with no resources and the cultural shock that occurs when big-city people encounter "the sticks" offer some lighter moments.In closing, this is a terrific film about human nature and about what it means to lead people. It is about the hyenas that live off other people's well-menaing obsessions and how they can get the upper hand, and it is ultimately about how a vision can redeem us.The camerawork is truly superb and makes the most of the vast, empty landscapes of Southern Argentina.